Quite a catch
Home that comes with permission to fish the River Tweed – for free!
THIS evening, comedians Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse will be bringing another slice of humour to our screens as their hit BBC2 series Gone Fishing nears the end of its third series. The show has not only revived interest in the pleasures of standing on a riverbank with a hook and line, it has sparked demand in one particular sector of the housing market – homes with fishing rights.
Whitehouse himself knows all about this because, only three years ago he sold his weekend home in Houghton, near Stockbridge on the banks of the River Test in Hampshire, which came with 50 yards of the most valuable fishing in the country at the end of its garden. The single-bank fishing rights are estimated to be worth £300,000 – a
You can see the fish from the drawing room window
significant slice of the asking price of £1.5 million.
‘It’s being lost in a timeless world,’ Whitehouse says about the attraction of fishing. ‘You are away from the chaos outside, doing something that’s elemental. It’s hunting, but, unlike shooting, which is noisy and intrusive, fishing is all about quietness and stealth.’
Today, one of the best-positioned country houses for fishing must be Benrig in Roxburghshire, on the banks of the Tweed, famous for its trout and salmon.
It has been put on the market by its owner, retired greetings card publisher Nigel Houldsworth, 72, a self-confessed ‘mad keen fisherman’ who, with wife, Melanie, 64, brought up three children there.
Fishing plays a key role in Nigel’s life. He publishes fishing maps at fishingmaps.co.uk, which have intricate drawings giving the lowdown on the best salmon pools in 15 Scottish rivers.
The deal he has done with the local angling club for fishing rights should make the house enticing to any angler.
‘I let them fish my stretch of the river for no fee,’ he says. ‘And in return they allow me to fish several miles of the river that they own.’
Benrig, near the village of St Boswells, is a picture-book, 17th Century former farmhouse, with nine bedrooms, six reception rooms and four bathrooms, and various outbuildings offering extra accommodation.
The master bedroom and the bow window of the Victorian drawing room in the main house offer views of the river, fields and woods. ‘You can see the fish heading and tailing,’ says Nigel. ‘It gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.’
Outside there are three paddocks, a horse shelter, a walled vegetable garden and a tennis court.
There is a stable block and cottage, as well an office and an additional three-bedroom cottage.
On the riverbank is the ‘Crystal Spring’, which once provided water for the house.
Nearby are the works where a donkey would have turned a wheel to pump out that water. There is even a memorial to ‘Donald the donkey’, who did this work.
Having lived at Benrig since 1985, leaving all this will be a wrench for Nigel. He loves both the people and the countryside of the Borders.
Two particular occasions will stick in his mind when he looks back on his time there – the weddings of his daughters, Louisa, 35, and 34-year-old Laura.
‘For both we had marquees on the lawn and we were blessed with beautiful weather,’ he says.
‘The views were stunning and the river, as ever, created a perfect backdrop.’